Nikolay Mladenov
Nikolay MladenovReuters

Israel must halt the “punitive demolition” of terrorists’ homes in Judea and Samaria, the United Nations said on Tuesday, and end its “illegal” policy of permitting Jews to build in eastern Jerusalem.

Nikolay Mladenov, the UN’s Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, blasted what he called “legal acrobatics” on the part of the Jewish state in permitting or granting legal standing to Jewish communities in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria.

In a video message released on Monday, Mladenov said all Israeli towns beyond the Green Line were in violation of international law.

“No legal acrobatics can change the fact that all outposts, whether legalized by Israeli law or not, whether located on state land or absentee land or private Palestinian land - just like all settlements in Area C and East Jerusalem - remain illegal under international law,” said Mladenov. This statement has been authoritatively refuted by the 2012 Levy Report.

Mladenov also ripped Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s proposed anti-terror plan. Calling for a “carrot-and-stick” approach to terrorist emanating from the Palestinian Authority, Liberman has proposed special benefits for terror-free towns, as well as the loss of special privileges – like Israeli work permits – for Arab towns with high-levels of terrorism.

On Tuesday the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs issued a series of “demolition alerts” on its Twitter feed, referring to the razing of terrorists’ homes as “punitive demolition[s]”.

The messages came just hours after IDF forces demolished the home of Muhmad Abed Almajid Al-Ameira, one of the terrorists responsible for the murder of Rabbi Michael Mark in a July shooting attack.

The demolition, which took place in the town of Dura, south of Hevron, was labelled a “punitive demolition”, with no explanation of the context of the demolition or the terror attack which left Rabbi Mark, father of ten and director of the Otniel Hesder Yeshiva, dead and his wife seriously injured.

On Tuesday the Prime Minister’s Office responded to Mladenov’s claims, saying they were “Jews have been living in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria for thousands of years and they are not the obstacle for peace. The obstacle for peace is the Palestinians' incessant attempts to deny the Jews' link to their historical homeland, and their refusal to accept that [Jews] belong here.”

"Claiming that Jewish construction in Jerusalem is illegal is as absurd as claiming American construction in Washington or French construction in Paris is illegal. The Palestinian demand for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from a future Palestinian state is appalling and the U.N. should condemn it -- not embrace it."